Beyond the joviality of its deployment – politically speaking, as always – intermingled with intellectual subtleties, invoking the voice of the late Makarios from beyond, this “inspiration” of DIKO testifies to a (not so well) concealed panic.
A panic that is more or less shared by almost all forces of the so-called democratic spectrum, always guided by their political interests.
We see that this democratic spectrum has begun to overflow so much that at some point we will see ELAM itself within it, ready to rise against… populism. Don’t laugh, we’ll live to see that.
In a Cyprus destroyed by fascism and nationalism, the now normalized far-right stands coordinated outside a children’s hospital, skillfully concealing the Nazi salute beneath motorcycle helmets, in order to endorse the pre-election campaign of an overly ambitious prominent member.
And there’s no one to shut the door in their face. When they start brandishing their swords on the sidewalks, it will be too late.
We no longer need to worry about the rise of the far-right. Not only because concerns, complaints, condemnations, and warning bells have utterly failed to curb it and have probably yielded opposite results.
But also because, according to appearances, the phenomenon can no longer be considered circumstantial and linked only to the crisis-ridden environment, social pressures, and ideological confrontations provoked by migration flows, rising living costs, wars, pandemics, and climate change.
The weed of far-right rhetoric has proven to be particularly resilient, adaptive, and expansive, finding fertile ground in our indifferent and awkward era.
Don’t be surprised if you see them in pivotal, executive positions. But what am I saying?
This has been happening for years. We’ve even seen a government spokesperson from their ranks. And don’t tell me that at the time he belonged to another political space and “changed sides.” Pelekanos himself, who served as vice president of the Democratic Rally (DISY), confessed that he didn’t wake up one day and change his positions and worldview.
He essentially admitted (to himself) that he ideologically aligns more with ELAM, that DISY was merely a vehicle for political advancement, and he judged that it’s time to “come out of the closet.”
What we must grasp, not only from this particular case, is that normalization began from the ranks of the democratic spectrum, not because parties didn’t try to defang the snake, but because in many cases they allowed their shades to resemble it, adopting its rhetoric with the pretext that they are trying to… tame it.
Nowadays, the far-right constitutes normalcy, with its percentages rising, but with the accomplices unaware of the causes. And this is not just a Cypriot phenomenon. Not even exclusively Greek, where we are currently experiencing a schizophrenic stage of fragmented, circus-like, and religiously zealous post-far-right.
In Italy, Meloni and the “Brothers of Italy” are already in power, in Hungary Orban has been since 2010, Le Pen’s party in France has reached alarming percentages, Wilders’ PVV in the Netherlands has skyrocketed, in Germany the AfD continues to rise, as does Portugal’s Chega (“Enough!”), Spain’s Vox, Romania’s AUR, Slovakia’s SASKA, Czechia’s ODS, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, and so on.
At the same time, in the USA, the explicitly far-right Trump is preparing to return to power, his admirer, Javier Milei, already leads Argentina, while Brazil is still licking its wounds from the Bolsonaro tornado.
What happened to Europe and the world? Mass hysteria? Why are they once again attracted to pseudo-eugenic and misanthropic theories? Was the Enlightenment just a parenthesis? Are we all, Westerners and Easterners, returning to the Middle Ages?
Did humanity long for the brief 20th century and wants to relive it? Perhaps.
What is certain, however, is that the far-right has learned to play the communication game and is dramatically favoured within the toxic framework of a conspiracy-obsessed society, where everything is politics and simultaneously nothing is, everything is fluid, and we all view others as polarized, while we are ready to label them at the slightest provocation. Without seeing the label they’ve put on us right under our noses.
Elefthera, May 12, 2024Far-right. far-right, normalization, democratic spectrum
